Writer, director and actor John Sayles is the epitome of the
independent filmmaker. Sayles started out in the film business as a writer for
B-movie producer Roger Corman, writing fast and funny action scripts, such as
PIRANHA, THE LADY IN RED, BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, and later, ALLIGATOR and THE
HOWLING. This experience helped launch his career as a director with his influential
THE RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS SEVEN in 1979. Since then, he has written and/or directed
two dozen films, most produced with his partner Maggi Renzi, and acted in more
than dozen more, his own and others, fashioning a body of work celebrating personal
and political relationships grounded in compelling stories. The recent restoration
of Sayles first three films, done by his own company, Anarchists Convention, and
IFC Films, provides the opportunity to celebrate his singular talent. “I
think my movies are about people who are insiders but outsiders ... somebody feels
alienated from their society yet they come from it or are accepted within it,
so they know how it works.” -John Sayles
MARCH 23 SAT 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM– VISITING ARTIST
RETURN OF THE SECAuCUS 7
US 1979
DIRECTOR: JOHN SAYLES Tonight we welcome John Sayles for a screening of his first
feature, one of the landmarks of independent American cinema and the model for
numerous ensemble films since. Chronicling a summer weekend reunion of seven college
friends, all of whom were arrested en route to a sixties anti-war demonstration
in Washington the decade earlier, RETURN explores the activism that brought them
together, the changes in their lives since and dilemmas of idealism—individually
and as a group—in a changed society. With keenly felt humor, affection and
sadness, these friends confront the inevitable effects of time and the challenge
of charting the future with resonating realism. (110 mins.)
MARCH 28 THU 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
LIANNA
US 1983
DIRECTOR: JOHN SAYLES LIANNA is the story of a faculty wife (Linda Griffiths)
who recklessly comes out as a lesbian and then has to deal with the consequences.
Lianna’s affair with Ruth, her night school professor, leads her to abandon
her two children and oppressive, cheating husband. Experiencing a missing joy
and romance, Lianna’s sexual awaking is rich with personal discovery and
excitement. But what she expects to be a lasting, love-filled new life soon hits
the reality of ordinary life and the lonely recognition that personal freedom
comes with a price. Candid, compassionate and full of keen observation, Sayles
provides a realistic meditation on the search for love and happiness.
(110 mins.)
MARCH 29 FRI 29 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
the BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET
US 1984
DIRECTOR: JOHN SAYLES BROTHER stars Joe Morton as a runaway alien slave from a
faraway planet whose escape pod touches down in Harlem. The locals call him “brother”
because they think he’s just a very weird black dude, never imagining his
other- world origin. Though irritatingly mute, he has amazing powers that fascinate
and amuse the locals, who protect him from pursuing bounty hunters. Sayles’
extra-terrestrial view of the mean streets of Harlem and his protagonists role
as the image of what his earthly friends imagine him to be provides comic observations
on everything from racial prejudices and drug addiction to the follies of life
on Earth. (107 mins.)
MARCH 30 SAT 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
MATEWAN
US 1987
DIRECTOR: JOHN SAYLES In 1920, the small sooty town of Matewan, West Virginia,
was the scene of a bloody shoot-out between company union-busters and coal miners
trying to organize for better working conditions. Sayles’ powerful, textured
film recreates the town, the time and the events that became known as the Matewan
massacre, an incident that set off a powder keg of conflict in the mining towns
throughout the eastern US. A story of hard work, poverty, scab-labor, racial tension
and tragic violence in the struggle for justice, MATEWAN features a talented ensemble
cast, led by James Earl Jones, who bring to life a haunting chapter in labor history.
(132 mins.)
MARCH 31 SUN 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
PASSIONFISH
US 1992
DIRECTOR: JOHN SAYLES PASSIONFISH is about the power of the unexpected—unexpected
accidents, unexpected places and, most of all, unexpected friendships. New York
City soap opera star May-Alice (Mary McDonnell) is hit by a speeding taxi and
paralyzed from the waist down. Unable to endure the indignities of physical rehabilitation,
she retreats to her childhood home in the evocative Bayous of Louisiana, takes
to the bottle and willfully tortures all those around her until they flee. But
with the arrival of the idiosyncratic Chantelle (Alfre Woodard), a new caregiver,
May-Alice meets someone as willful as she is and life starts to take magical turns.
Sayles weaves fine, performances, a biting script and atmospheric visual invention
to tell a story of emotion and revelation. (138 mins.)
APRIL 3 WED 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
LONESTAR
US 1996
DIRECTOR: JOHN SAYLES Sayles’ epic, multi-layered fillm stars Chris Cooper
as Sam Deeds, a sheriff exploring his dead father’s murky past against a
background of racial tension in the Tex-Mex border town of Frontera. Determined
to debunk the reverence surrounding his father, Deeds begins to investigate the
discovery of the bones and badge of a corrupt and dangerous sheriff, Charley Wade
(Kris Kristofferson), who disappeared 25 years earlier. This is no mere murder
mystery, however, as Sayles’ narrative juggles several stories that shift
from past to present in seamless fashion. In the process, race, politics and identity
come together to reveal the intimate, and sometimes hidden bonds that tie community
as well as family.
(134 mins.)
APRIL 4 THU 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
LIMBO
US 1999
DIRECTOR: JOHN SAYLES Alaska is America’s last frontier, a land rich with
the promise of adventure and the possibility of redemption. This vast expanse
of raw nature is used as both setting and antagonist in LIMBO, the tale of three
people who come together to face their own demons and experience the very nature
of risk. It is risk, physical and emotional, that lies at the heart of the film
and pulls both characters and audience into the limbo of the title—a condition
of unknowable outcome. “I often come up with stories that are in search of
places … Alaska is a place where people come to reinvent themselves. I think
this is a place that draws things out of you that other places don’t.”
- John Sayles (127 mins.)
